


Earth-11

by allp_wips



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-07-21 05:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19996420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allp_wips/pseuds/allp_wips





	Earth-11

When Alex enters the temporary ward in the DEO's medical ward that Astra is resting in, Astra pulls up the sheets and turns to the other side, making it clear to the other woman that she doesn't wish to have any sort of the discussion at the moment.

"Astra," Alex begins, regardless. "We need to talk."

"I'm afraid that I'm still recovering from the journey back from Earth-11," Astra says. "Perhaps another time."

"At some point we're going to have to discuss what we saw in that world," Alex says.

"What I saw," Astra corrects her. "You merely came in at the end, after I had set things to rights."

Alex sighs, sounding frustrated. "Astra, that doesn't change the fact that you and I were married, in that universe. We should probably talk about that."

Astra draws the sheets up even higher around her, but turns around, still keeping her eyes closed, and making no attempt to get up from the bed. Alex has a tendency to overthink, she knows, when there's no clear course of action. Astra, on the other hand, happens to not find this particular situation to require such intensive thought.

She had stumbled into the Earth that the humans dubbed Earth-11 by accident, a few months ago, while trying to reconaissance a time ship on the orders of the DEO (or well, on the orders of Alex, who is the only agent that Astra deigns to take orders from.) What should have been a simple intelligence-gathering mission had turned into an unexpected trip to an Earth where something had happened which was much worse than the worst expectations that Astra had for the planet's future: nuclear warfare.

"Do you know what I think is worth talking about?" Astra asks. "That, even now, your world leaders squabble with each other over meaningless trifles that can lead to exactly the war that ravaged that Earth."

She had found herself in a desolate planet, that wasdesolated in the aftermath of the nuclear fallout. She'd found a desperate Alex Danvers, turned lonely and vicious after the disappearance of both her sister and her wife. It had greatly disturbed even Astra, who thought she'd already seen the worst of what life had to offer.

"It won't happen here," Alex says, her words full of conviction. "We'll stop it."

"You sound so certain," Astra says, one for whose planet the unthinkable has already happened.

The few Kryptonians of Earth-11 had been wandering the world lost and powerless, owing to the prolonged eclipse of the sun by the nuclear fallout of dust and smoke, and they had been poisoned by radiation to boot, in their vulnerable state. It had been sheer luck that Astra had been thrown into that world, the one where her powers could do the most good. She had eventually been able to find that world's Kara and Astra - comatose and weak, but still alive - for Alex, before her powers died out under that planet's hidden sun. Afterwards, still stranded on that Earth with no way back to her home universe, she had worked with Alex to reverse the most drastic effects of the nuclear fallout, her pre-Myriad terraforming research coming in handy for the first time.

"At least it's on the path to recovery now," Alex says. "You did that."

It had been Alex and Kara who finally tracked down Astra on Earth-11, after realizing that she had become stranded somewhere in the multiverse. By the time they found her, Astra was ready to return, sure that the Alex of Earth-11 had things well in hand. It had been as positive a conclusion of events as she could have hoped for, especially with that universe's Kara and Astra well on their way to recovery by the time she left.

Astra lets out a slow exhale. Despite her physical recovery after her return, the carnage of the war-ravaged world she had visited refuses to leave her mind. She can understand why Alex would want to discuss the lighter aspects of such a world, instead of facing the grim reality that such desolation is possible on this one, too.

"We must have made up pretty good," Alex says.

Astra hums sleepily in general agreement. "Perhaps it was simply a matter of, what do you call it? Animal magnetism?"

"Hey, I'm not that kind of woman."

Astra smiles, and Alex seems to subside for a few moments, before Astra feels her fidgeting again. It occurs to Astra that there might be a deeper reasoning for her pursual of this matter, than the one she had assumed.

"Alex, they are not us," she says, still not opening her eyes, or moving from her position on the bed. "We are not bound to make their choices."

There's silence. Astra tilts her head up slightly, and peeks through half-lidded eyes to see Alex deep in thought.

"I suppose you're right," Alex says, after a while. Then, she snorts. "As if I'd ever marry you."

Astra shrugs from the bed. Such a statement doesn't sting coming from Alex, the way it would have when coming from some Kryptonian on her home planet, because Alex doesn't say it out of some belief that Astra is inherently inferior or deficient.

"What, no come back?" Alex asks. 

Astra shrugs. "I fail to see what's so unpleasant about being married to you. You're adequate in every way."

"Adequate?" Alex snorts, but she doesn't look put out either. "I'll have you know I'm more than adequate."

Then, she lapses into silence for some more time, before speaking again.

"Hey, Astra?"

Astra, who had been nodding off to sleep again, grumbles before responding. "Yes?"

"I take it back. I find you adequate, too."

Despite her sleepiness, Astra smiles. "Yes, I've noticed you staring at my adequacies."

Eyes closed, she still easily catches the pillow that Alex lobs at her.

"Low blow, and a hypocritical one at that."

"Guilty," Astra accepts.

"Why are you so unbothered by it?" Alex asks. She sounds genuinely curious.

"Everything else I saw on that planet bothered me far more than the idea that we could one day fall in love and get married," Astra says. "I suspect those things bother you more, too, which is why you've decided to focus on this insignificant thing."

She hears Alex sigh. "Maybe this is why I married you, because you can cut through the bullshit."

Astra still remembers, how tightly the Alex of Earth-11 had embraced her when they had first met, under the impression that it was her own wife returned, before they had both realized the reality of the situation. No one had held Astra that way in her life, so desperately as if their life depended on it.

"Perhaps it is," she says.

Alex hums absentmindedly. "Astra?"

Astra inwardly resigns herself to the fact that she will not be getting any sleep that night; something that wouldn't usually bother her, if it weren't for the fact that she sorely needs the rest after her multiverse ordeal. "Yes?"

"Wanna go out sometime?"

At that, Astra's eyes fly open, and she stares up at Alex, slack-jawed. "What?"

Alex is looking down at her. She looks tense, but there's also a softness in her eyes.

"I'm tired of holding back and thinking that what I feel for you isn't something I shouldn't act on," she admits. "I've tried to pretend it was just a physical thing, and that it would go away soon, but it hasn't, and maybe I need to stop lying to myself and take a chance to see where this leads."

Astra continues to study her, her mind working faster than her mouth. She's been all but obvious about her interest in Alex, while knowing at the same time all the reasons why the other woman prefers to hold back, despite those reasons being ones that Astra herself considers superfluous. This change in Alex's attitude, so abrupt, is not something she had expected.

"Alex, I've already said that we are not bound to make the same choices that our-"

"It's not that," Alex interrupts her.

She looks away, seemingly frustrated, before turning back to Astra.

"I guess I now see something of what you see," she says, sitting on the bed and edging closer to Astra. "You had your planet destroyed, and it made you see things in a different way than I do. But, yesterday, I had to see a version of my planet that was almost turned to ashes. I guess it put things in perspective. I want to pursue the things I want, instead of worrying so much about living up to everyone's expectations of me."

She takes Astra's hand.

"So, how about a movie, when you're recovered? We can go see a star war."

"I know that you know that I'm aware that it's called Star Wars," Astra says. She smiles and closes her eyes again, though she still holds on to Alex's hand, squeezing back tightly. "But, yes. I would like that, Alex."

\---


End file.
